SOUTH BEND — This Mother’s Day brunch with upstart Jacksonville wasn’t even two minutes old when Thomas Ricciardelli, senior netminder of Notre Dame lacrosse, experienced what he interpreted as a good omen.
William Krupsky, a hulking midfielder for the visiting Dolphins, whizzed a shot past Ricciardelli’s ear that miraculously clanged off the goalpost as the teams were just settling in.
A good indicator?
“Absolutely,” Riccardelli said after an eventual 18-5 win in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. “I’d like to consider those position saves. Realistically, they’re probably not.”
As superstitious as the next goalie, Ricciardelli smiled as he considered a more nuanced definition.
“It’s just help from the gods — the lacrosse gods,” he said. “It’s definitely helpful seeing one like that where you’re just like, ‘All right, maybe this is my game,’ and just kind of gain that confidence. That felt good.”
On a gorgeous Sunday afternoon at Arlotta Stadium, May 10 brought a career-high five goals off the sizzling stick of sophomore attackman Luke Miller and three more from freshman Teddy Lally. All told, nine different Irish shooters lit the figurative lamp to help end this Cinderella run for Jacksonville (11-6), playing its fourth game in nine days amid its first NCAA Tournament appearance.
Second-seeded Notre Dame (11-2) advances to a quarterfinal meeting on May 16 with Johns Hopkins, 9-8 overtime winners over defending champion Cornell in the opening round. The Blue Jays (10-5) are unseeded but entered the NCAA Tournament ranked ninth in both major polls.
Encouragement from (Liam) Entenmann
Yet, Sunday’s biggest headline was a much-needed bounce back from Ricciardelli after he let in 15 of 22 shots in a semifinal loss to Virginia in the ACC Tournament nine days earlier.
That 32% save rate against a Cavaliers team that scored 11 times on him in the only other Irish loss this season (March 28) was enough to leave the senior from New Canaan, Conn., in a bit of an existential crisis.
“I lost a little bit of confidence in that game in terms of where I was and how I was doing,” said the newly minted ACC goalie of the year. “It was just (a matter of) looking at what I was doing in the games where I was successful, trying to feel those same feelings.”
He also received a significant boost on the eve of this NCAA opener in his weekly phone chat with Irish predecessor Liam Entenmann, the two-time national championship goalie now playing professionally for the New York Atlas of the Premier Lacrosse League.
“He’s the best,” Ricciardelli said of Entenmann, who doubles as an assistant coach at Michigan. “He was just re-instilling that confidence in me, just telling me I’m good enough to play here and be the starting goalie here.
“It’s been a lot, just coming after him and how good of a goalie he was, but the amount of support he’s given me and just telling me to be me and play my game because I know how to play lacrosse – he’s been the best.”
Irish coach Kevin Corrigan, after watching his goalie stop 16 of 19 shots on goal, said he had no doubt Ricciardelli would come through.
“He’s a great goalie, and great goalies have short memories,” Corrigan said. “He was terrific today. He couldn’t have been a lot better, and he’ll have a short memory about that and get back to work for this week.”
Thomas Ricciardelli sets the tone
Corrigan noted his second-year starter in goal is “pretty good at self-regulation” and absorbing the inevitable punches that come his way. It took Jacksonville 14 shots before it got on the board, but by then the Irish had built a 3-0 lead after Ricciardelli (and the lacrosse gods) helped them withstand an early onslaught.
“They had opportunities early,” Corrigan said, “and when he shut the door on those, it set a tone for everybody.”
Corrigan called a timeout halfway through the first period with the game still scoreless and the Irish struggling to gain possession.
His message?
“It wasn’t as bad as what it seemed,” he said. “To start the game with an almost three-minute defensive possession and really not give them any great looks during that time was really good. I just wanted to reinforce the positive things we were doing and say results will follow if we keep doing that.”
Riccardelli remembered his coach’s impassioned soliloquy a bit differently.
“I got yelled at a little bit for some poor clears, especially early on,” he said, smiling. “I was rushing a few things, just trying to play too quickly. (Corrigan) kind of yelled at me but he calmed me down. I just had to go through the progressions, find the open guy. It’s easy to clear when you just go one pass, one pass, one pass. It was all good.”
The Irish rolled from there to earn their spot next weekend at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y. They also managed to avoid the first-round fate that sent home fourth-seeded Richmond (courtesy of Duke) along with No. 7 Cornell.
The Irish trail the all-time series with the Blue Jays 4-3 but have won the past two meetings, including a 12-9 decision in the 2023 NCAA quarterfinals on route to the first national title in program history.
In the only other meeting between the teams since 2007, Notre Dame rolled 16-9 at home in the 2019 NCAA Tournament.
“They’re playing very well,” Corrigan said. “Watching them all year long, they’ve been kind of a team that doesn’t say die and has come back a number of times. We know it’s going to be an all-day sucker next week.”
Mike Berardino covers Notre Dame football for the South Bend Tribune and NDInsider.com. Follow him on social media @MikeBerardino.
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: ‘Lacrosse gods’ smile on Thomas Ricciardelli, Notre Dame in NCAA opener
Reporting by Mike Berardino, South Bend Tribune / South Bend Tribune
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
